Artist Deftones

Though Deftones may have learned their menacing, staggered sense of rhythm from the same place as the nü-metal movement, the California band went about it with a boldly well-rounded vision. Their third album, 2000’s White Pony, landed them among those rare hard-rock bands that both achieve mainstream success and expand listeners’ sense of what “hard rock” can sound like. The recent Diamond Eyes continues the band’s tendency to reconfigure White Pony with each subsequent release, though there’s some snarling surprises to be found, like the neck-snapping stutter of “You’ve Seen The Butcher.” Frontman Chino Moreno continues pushing for bigger melodies between the screams—the soaring chorus of Diamond Eyes’ title track should add some anthemic highs to Deftones’ onstage attack.

Updated 10/05/2010